Enough of reissues.....

[Trainwreck]

Right now the reissues are the domestic companies bread and butter, newer models are kind of a niche market in my opinion and probably don't sell in the same numbers. 

Edited yesterday at 04:19 PM by Trainwreck

[Stef]

I've built HUNDREDS of model cars; some a few times, most only once.

And I still want to build hundreds more.

There are literally THOUSANDS of model cars out there, from old sealed 1/25 Johan Desotos to new Aoshima 1/32 snap Skylines, and everything in between.

And new, semi-new, remastered new, new in 40 years, and old new models continue to hit the market near daily.

This is a fantastic time for the hobby; I love Round 2, Atlantis, Revellogram, and all the manufacturers for making our dreams come true, surprising us, exceeding our expectations, and breathing new life into old, lost, forgotten, and ignored subjects.

Everything is new: new box art, new decals, new pad-printing, new glass colours, new white styrene, and occasionally new/optional/restored parts.

Who would have thought that in 2025 and beyond, we'd see the Fiero again, along with the Beretta, 60 Nomad wagon, 60 and 63 Ford pickups, 72 Holmes wrecker, 65 Backaruda, the Galaxie 46-48 Chevys, 63 Nova wagon, 68 Coronet, 71 Demon, 85 Blazer, and countless other gems.

I don't even need or want a house anymore. Just divert the mortgage payments directly to the model companies, gimme a shed to build in, and I will be happy for the rest of my days, building as many of these REISSUES as I can.

[Junkman]

If unit sales are so critical to profitability, one has to wonder why the American companies aren't keener on increasing export sales.
American model kits have been increasingly hard to come by over the past two decades, now it became almost impossible to obtain any.
Their increasing navel gazing at the domestic market is costing them sales through their noses.

American kits were widely available in the 1970s/80s, my generation grew up with them, and we would more than welcome the reissues of the kits we ruined back then. Talk about round 2.

In this time and age, where more 3rd party companies than ever before exist that can be tasked with handling your export business, it is inexplicable why the American manufacturers don't make use of that. Most produce in China anyway, so the merchandise could be exported directly from there to a market reaching from Scandinavia to Italy with millions of potential customers.

Edited yesterday at 10:27 AM by Junkman

[James2]

In a hobby with aging customers, such as modeling, it makes sense to evoke young memories and capture or dare I say recapture the spirit of building. I enjoy seeing the reissues and like the upgrades the manufacturers are doing with the kits. At this stage of my life, I couldn't possibly build the kits I have.  And though I don't purchase many new kits these days, once in a while a re-release can be hard to ignore. Happy modeling.....

[Luc Janssens]

2 hours ago, Junkman said:

If unit sales are so critical to profitability, one has to wonder why the American companies aren't keener on increasing export sales.
American model kits have been increasingly hard to come by over the past two decades, now it became almost impossible to obtain any.
Their increasing navel gazing at the domestic market is costing them sales through their noses.

American kits were widely available in the 1970s/80s, my generation grew up with them, and we would more than welcome the reissues of the kits we ruined back then. Talk about round 2.

In this time and age, where more 3rd party companies than ever before exist that can be tasked with handling your export business, it is inexplicable why the American manufacturers don't make use of that. Most produce in China anyway, so the merchandise could be exported directly from there to a market reaching from Scandinavia to Italy with millions of potential customers.

Glow2B in Germany could be a possible interesting partner to source direct from China for both Moebius and Round2

Now it's a travesty for us Europeans, cus US kits are ordered in and shipped from the US, meaning we pay that big beautifull tax, on top of the extra shipping and our own EU import tax.

In '26 the standard amt and Moebius car kit will be $50 to $60 here.

Ordering from mail order companies or having friends from US sending kit over is not an option either with today's shipping costs, $100 for 3 kits!

So guess time to look at the stash and to start building those I guess 😉

But sure is a pitty, cuz want to continue supporting the fantastic developments from the people of both Round2 and Moebius.

 

Cheers

Luc

[baycolony]

Well I guess I bit off more than expected with this post.  Not unexpected though.  I knew there would be plenty of you piping up about how happy you are to repurchase the same kits over and over again to relive the good old days when kits were new, you were young and everything is nostalgic.  Well these opinions are subjective and respected, but the point of my post has been  missed by most, and in fact most of you are making MY point.  Those nostalgic days you yearn for and satisfy  by purchasing these reissues, are the point.  Reviving the era when these model companies produced newer kits all the time and you pursue THAT satisfaction again. Also, I was comparing numerous other companies and genres that do this all the time.  Sure, I can cherry pick examples of recent new releases too, but they are few and far between, and I have purchased them and have been very impressed with the quality.  Again, why not more when other model companies do it?, and I know all the pundits and self appointed economists will have their reasons and excuses.  I build in all genres and it amazes me how many beautifully crafted kits, sometimes of the same subject by different manufactures, are constantly released.  Are these companies losing money?  If you are happy with the current same old same old, then be happy and keep feeding the trend.

[Luc Janssens]

2 hours ago, baycolony said:

Well I guess I bit off more than expected with this post.  Not unexpected though.  I knew there would be plenty of you piping up about how happy you are to repurchase the same kits over and over again to relive the good old days when kits were new, you were young and everything is nostalgic.  Well these opinions are subjective and respected, but the point of my post has been  missed by most, and in fact most of you are making MY point.  Those nostalgic days you yearn for and satisfy  by purchasing these reissues, are the point.  Reviving the era when these model companies produced newer kits all the time and you pursue THAT satisfaction again. Also, I was comparing numerous other companies and genres that do this all the time.  Sure, I can cherry pick examples of recent new releases too, but they are few and far between, and I have purchased them and have been very impressed with the quality.  Again, why not more when other model companies do it?, and I know all the pundits and self appointed economists will have their reasons and excuses.  I build in all genres and it amazes me how many beautifully crafted kits, sometimes of the same subject by different manufactures, are constantly released.  Are these companies losing money?  If you are happy with the current same old same old, then be happy and keep feeding the trend.

If you mean military and plane kits then the market is a global one, with a much more narrow subject matter (even with the many generations of the Sherman tanks to chose from)  then the gazzilion car models.

It also leaves much more room for improvement. Certainly when one can combine different build generations.

Here a new 1/35th scale military model kit wich comes in a versions

Also cars "in general" are much more a regional thing with each market having their own rules and preferences and also more "generation ( age of the builder) related".

Then there's the matter of scale 1/24  vs 1/25!

Anyway JMHO, have no proof, data or saleswise, but like to see what other opinions and maybe even facts come out of the woodwork 

😉

 

Yeah, that wacky Belgian at it again 🤪

Edited yesterday at 04:18 PM by Luc Janssens
Adding additional comments and photo

[Mark]

I also collect model kit catalogs from the Sixties and Seventies.  AMT, MPC, and some Revell.  Looking through any of those, they are HEAVY on reissues.  AMT, for example, reissued pretty much every available 1965 car kit tool in 1969.  And many of the Trophy Series kits got reboxed every couple of years, sometimes with more than one version in any given catalog.

Seventies Revell catalogs all have their old opening-doors Tri-Five Chevy kits in different packaging every year or two.  So constant reissues are nothing new. 

[Can-Con]

3 hours ago, baycolony said:

Well I guess I bit off more than expected with this post.  Not unexpected though.  I knew there would be plenty of you piping up about how happy you are to repurchase the same kits over and over again to relive the good old days when kits were new, you were young and everything is nostalgic.  Well these opinions are subjective and respected, but the point of my post has been  missed by most, and in fact most of you are making MY point.  Those nostalgic days you yearn for and satisfy  by purchasing these reissues, are the point.  Reviving the era when these model companies produced newer kits all the time and you pursue THAT satisfaction again. Also, I was comparing numerous other companies and genres that do this all the time.  Sure, I can cherry pick examples of recent new releases too, but they are few and far between, and I have purchased them and have been very impressed with the quality.  Again, why not more when other model companies do it?, and I know all the pundits and self appointed economists will have their reasons and excuses.  I build in all genres and it amazes me how many beautifully crafted kits, sometimes of the same subject by different manufactures, are constantly released.  Are these companies losing money?  If you are happy with the current same old same old, then be happy and keep feeding the trend.

OK, Gil, This is what it comes down to. Buy what you want and don't bash other people for buying what they want. 

I hope I'm wrong on this but you're coming off as the rest of us are somehow "wrong" for buying the reissues that we want instead of ignoring them and only buying the freshest, most current releases and demanding ONLY first run kits fresh from virgin molds.

Maybe I'm just not getting something in the subtext but this is how I feel about this whole thread. 

[Can-Con]

6 hours ago, Junkman said:

If unit sales are so critical to profitability, one has to wonder why the American companies aren't keener on increasing export sales.
American model kits have been increasingly hard to come by over the past two decades, now it became almost impossible to obtain any.
Their increasing navel gazing at the domestic market is costing them sales through their noses.

American kits were widely available in the 1970s/80s, my generation grew up with them, and we would more than welcome the reissues of the kits we ruined back then. Talk about round 2.

In this time and age, where more 3rd party companies than ever before exist that can be tasked with handling your export business, it is inexplicable why the American manufacturers don't make use of that. Most produce in China anyway, so the merchandise could be exported directly from there to a market reaching from Scandinavia to Italy with millions of potential customers.

 

4 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

Glow2B in Germany could be a possible interesting partner to source direct from China for both Moebius and Round2

Now it's a travesty for us Europeans, cus US kits are ordered in and shipped from the US, meaning we pay that big beautifull tax, on top of the extra shipping and our own EU import tax.

In '26 the standard amt and Moebius car kit will be $50 to $60 here.

Ordering from mail order companies or having friends from US sending kit over is not an option either with today's shipping costs, $100 for 3 kits!

So guess time to look at the stash and to start building those I guess 😉

But sure is a pitty, cuz want to continue supporting the fantastic developments from the people of both Round2 and Moebius.

 

Cheers

Luc

Sounds logical to ship directly to the target markets guys but I don't think that's gonna happen any time soon.

It takes roughly the same time to reach a port in California then to reach Vancouver but most if not all model kits coming from China still go through the U.S before reaching Canada.

Not to mention that for a lot of these ships, Vancouver is the first port they dock at in North America before heading south to California. 

This info comes from the owner of my local shop who imports a lot of kits from the U.S.. He tells me he wishes he could just get them shipped more directly but it's just not set up that way.

[stitchdup]

I think round 2 are missing a trick by not shipping kits direct to europe from china. there is a demand for them but if the choice is a £60+ amt reissue or a £35-40 revell reissue the revell will win 90% of the time. If they shipped them direct from china they avoid those extra fees as it never touched american soil. it opens up a revenue stream they seem to mostly miss now just due to price. the demand is there if you look at euro show pics but most of the american stuff is a revell kit

[leafsprings2]

As for re issues, great, allows us to build older models without paying collector prices.  Big plastic has always suffered from bad decisions in picking subject matter.  I'm basically  a  1/25 light medium heavy truck builder. Back in the very early days, one of the very first kits was the IMC Dodge L 700 tilt cab. Never was a popular truck, never admired. Dud. If they would have picked anything else, they would have done much better. Revell did do a nice 50's KW conventional and White tilt cab, but done in 1/48 scale, another dud decision IMO. The California Hauler Pete, the first AMT blueprint truck, was a popular truck in 1:1, and was a hit with AMT and started the big truck model boom of the 70's where we got new kit after new kit it seemed like every 6 months. IMO we could relive another truck boom if big plastic choses the right subject matter. The new Mack B model planned could be the start of another truck boom. The key is bringing back classic old school trucks one after the next. I'm sorry to say, new modern truck models are of no interest to me and would never purchase one. 

Edited yesterday at 06:14 PM by leafsprings2

[WillyBilly]

I totally agree. We need more newer stuff. More 70s, 80s, and 90s stuff. Maybe more 2000s too. Even obscure stuff can be cool. How many times can you re-pop the same old cars from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

I would love to see a 2004 Silverado SS, or a 04 Cadillac CTS-V, or later CTS wagon or coupe, or some of the early 70s GM intermediates. How about a mid 80s Crown Victoria, or Fairmont, or an Escort GT, or Dodge Magnum

I was so excited last year learning about the release of the 84 K5 Blazer from Revell. It was about time. How about Mobius do a series of 73-90 GM trucks like they have done with the Fords. How about a square body Suburban so I do not have to use two kits to build one.

[Mark C.]

These 'reissue complaint' threads pop up from time to time, and they usually follow the same pattern, somebody doesn't like that some companies reissue so many kits from old tooling, people who like reissues chime in to say why they like them and what it means to their little corner of the hobby, and then some back and forths happen, sometimes people get a little snippy, but usually the conversations are quite civil.  This thread is nothing new in that respect.

So... I beg to ask, exactly what is the desired outcome?  For example, would you like the companies who own vast catalogues of old tooling to melt them down for scrap metal so that you don't have to see them in your LHS or your favourite online store anymore?  Would that accomplish anything other than to take away part of the hobby that some of us enjoy? 

As far as new tooling goes, you don't have to look too hard to find new tooling by American companies (with the exception of Atlantis, perhaps).  Let's review a few.  I'm sure I will miss some, but the following kits that I'm aware of are made from tooling that was new within the last 5 years or so.  In the cases where new tooling was added to kits with relatively new tooling to create a new version, I will include those (thinking of the Revell '71 Olds 442, for example).  I'm sure everyone will have an opinion, and that's fine.  It's why we post here.

 Revell:  '71 Olds 442, '71 Mustang Boss 351, '71 Mustang Mach 1, '22 Corvette Z51 coupe, Stranger Things 1985 Blazer, '22 Corvette Convertible, sixties/seventies Ford Bronco and halfcab, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon? (not sure if it meets the timeline or not, but it is relatively new tooling), '85 GMC Jimmy, Stranger Things GM van, etc.  I personally would include a number of other 'recent' kits, like their mid sixties Chevy pickups, '68 and '69 Chevelles, Novas, '70 Charger, etc., as even if the tooling is 10 - 15 years old, the designs are still somewhat modern and they go together well and include a lot of detail for the most part.

Moebius:  Just about everything in their line is relatively recent tooling, with all of their Hudsons, big Chryslers, Comets, Ford pickups of many years and configurations, '65 Plymouths and Dodges, '64 and '65 Chevy IIs, '61 Pontiacs, Ramp Trucks, etc.  Too many to list individually for me.  More coming, too, with '67-'72 Chevy pickups, Ford Maverick, etc.

Salvinos Jr:  Numerous versions of current and classic NASCAR kits (excluding the Monogram tooling, though some of it has been modified to create new versions not previously kitted), newer Modifieds and Indy cars as well.

Round 2:  2 recent Bronco kits, Green Hornet Black Beauty, '21 Charger R/T, Charger Police, Charger Hellcat widebody coming soon, etc.  As another poster had mentioned, their recent and upcoming cloned kits are basically new tooling of old kits that haven't been available for decades in many cases, but have been retooled and reengineered to fit together better and add detail.  There are so many of those, including: '64 Cutlass convertible and hardtop, '63 Chevy II wagon, '65 and '68 GTOs, '66 Mustang 2+2, '59 Cadillac Ambulance, '64 Chevelle, '66 Shelby, '71 Demon, '68 Coronet HT and convertible, 1960 and '63 Ford pickups, etc.  Upcoming: '60 Nomad, '65 Barracuda, '72 Duster.  Round 2 has a huge catalogue, much of which is pretty much straight reissues, which I think hides the fact of how much new stuff and heavily modified/newly tooled older stuff they have.

To sum it up, in my opinion we have an embarrassment of riches in model choices.  Then add in all the great Japanese and European kits out there.  I'm lucky in that I like a mixture of newly tooled kits and reissues - for me it's mostly about the subject matter, but there is truly more stuff out there than I would ever have time to build.  I say we are very fortunate, so don't worry, be happy!  

[Ragtop Man]

Dorothy to Toto: "We're not in 1965 Detroit any more!" 

Who WOULDN'T want stacks of new subjects every year? 

Recall the stated purpose of the original AMT Trophy series - to have an evergreen lineup of kits to keep production churning until the next wave of promo work came through the door.  I would argue they were planning for the inevitable day when promos would dry up, and the tool bank would be all that was left.  

Today, even with entirely new development and sales paradigms, a new kit is very expensive to produce and not all subjects are guaranteed sellers. The supply line is long, the politics of international trade and tarrifs are unstable and counterproductive. 

Would love to see more new subjects, but knowing  how the cogs turn, glad to see what we have. 

[rickcaps55]

I love that all the old kits are coming back i hope they step it up these are cars we all drove and loved i have been building model cars for 63 years i started in 1962 and i for one only build American cars it's this country's auto history.! And it's what build the custom world and racing world I LOVE IT.! and if the model company's  want to keep getting my money i hope they dig deeper in that old back room.!!!!